ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the macro-economic policy and argues that the distribution of rewards under the market system was unacceptable to most Americans. Unemployment insurance and Social Security are attempts to correct for unacceptable facets of the market system. The chapter describes the American welfare system that indicates the appropriation of income by the government for transfer. The transfer is to the poor, the unemployed, and the elderly which provides a real gain in income for these groups and is the outcome of political action, at least on the part of labor-oriented interests. The only way to enable low-income workers to escape the poverty and unemployment trap is to make career-type jobs available to them. The Basic Pension Act of 1913 created a national pension system which, though providing only small benefits, nevertheless covered the entire population. In Sweden, far more than in the United States, public assistance tends to be a temporary solution to personal economic difficulties.
